Vinyl and weeding

[lottie]

This may be a dumb question? What is weeding and can you buy vinyl from craft stores etc - never noticed it anywhere here in NZ but probably not looking in the right place.

[missvickie]

Weeding is the process of removing all the negative pieces from your design - leaving just the positive image that you wanted to create. For example, if you were cutting and weeding out the word "weeding", you would take away all the extra vinyl around and inside all of the letters (like the little pieces in the middle of the e's, the d, and the g).

Some craft stores sell vinyl... mostly in the Cricut section though. If you don't find it there, I would look online (eBay or elsewhere). I get mine by the foot in rolls - it can cost less than $2 per foot (shipped) that way. I personally order from MetroDecals.com.

~Vickie
http://www.missvickie.net (my Cricut & Free SVG blogsite)

[lottie]

Thanks Missvickie. Just got back from our town and couldn't find vinyl in any of the crafty shops. Asked for transfer tape as well and they looked at me blankly. Saw some contact clear self adhesive stuff for covering school books etc - is that the stuff? Am now busting to have a go at working with vinyl. Will send away for some.

[Sweetness4713]

You can use the clear contact for books as well for transfer tape.. Like the experience you had of the blank look from the store clerk I get that at our Michaels all the time when asking for items... I don't know how some of these people get jobs there.. When I bought my cricut expression not one of them knew a darn thing about the machine.. Even the store manager.. There were 8 of them working that day..

[alncarol77]

When I first started using vinyl I called a few sign shops and asked if they had any scrap vinyl they were going to throw away. It was amazing the vinyl they gave me to practice with. I also asked them about transfer tape and they were most helpful. Myvinyldesigner.com also has a tutorial on weeding. I love working with vinyl its so much fun. Best of luck Carol

[HeatherM]

Just wanted to add that it helps to use a craft knife or needle tool to help lift the scrap pieces, and that you should do this from inside the scrap pieces rather than the cut line so that you don't accidentally damage the good part of the vinyl.

[Jax]

Just some extra information of what I do with the "weeded out" pieces. I set my cricut so that it cuts the vinyl and puts an imprint on the paper. When I weed I take the scraps and transfer them to a bottom layer piece of paper from a previous weeding (this way I can reuse them). After I finish weeding I pull the decal off with transfer tape and put it on another piece of paper. So now I'm left wtih my matte and the original piece of paper with the imprint of the image. Now I take the weeded parts and put them back on the original paper (It has been scored so it's like putting a puzzle back together).

After the "puzzle" is back together I turn it into a decal with the transfer tape.

Now you ask so you have a positive and a negative..So what???

Well take that negative and put it on a glass..use etching acid to etch the glass. It doesn't eat through the vinyl only the exposed glass. It usually takes 6 minutes and you wash off the acid...peel the vinyl...and you have the decal you just created etched to a glass...makes really cool gifts for people. I've done about 8 glasses as gifts for people and they were not only amazed but really liked them...

Like I said something creative to do with the scraps.

[lkc]

Thanks Missvickie. Just got back from our town and couldn't find vinyl in any of the crafty shops. Asked for transfer tape as well and they looked at me blankly. Saw some contact clear self adhesive stuff for covering school books etc - is that the stuff? Am now busting to have a go at working with vinyl. Will send away for some.

Transfer tape is a different product, designed for transferring vinyl...some people have had trouble removing the clear contact paper (I've never tried to use it this way) so I prefer to use transfer tape myself...local sign shops would have it as well as vinyl and as earlier suggested they may be willing to give or sell scraps of vinyl.

Laura